A ferry disaster in Indonesia has brought renewed attention to the Masalembu Islands, an area long associated with deadly maritime accidents and a persistent local legend compared to the lore of the Bermuda Triangle.
The Virgo Transport 8 capsized in the Java Sea waters near the islands this week while sailing from Surabaya to Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan on Borneo. It was carrying 243 passengers and crew.
At least six died, 108 were rescued, and 129 remained missing as of Thursday.
Mohammad Syafii, head of the national search and rescue agency Basarnas, said 1,097 personnel, 17 vessels, and five aircraft were involved in searching for the missing.
“Every development in the field is continuously evaluated to ensure the search area can be determined effectively and increase the chances of finding survivors and victims," he said in a statement.
The sea around Masalembu carries powerful currents that can turn especially dangerous when they meet strong seasonal winds and high waves during the east monsoon, which runs between April and October.
As a result, the area has witnessed a string of major accidents in recent decades, giving it a reputation as “Indonesia’s Bermuda Triangle”.
The nickname has become embedded enough in Indonesia’s popular culture to inspire a local television series about the survivors of a plane crash in the same waters. The myth has resurfaced online after the ferry accident, according to Indonesian media.
The accident that is most strongly tied to the legend is the sinking of the passenger ship Tampomas II on 27 January 1981. The ship caught fire near Masalembo while going from Jakarta to Makassar and sank amid rough weather, with waves reported as high as 10m, killing hundreds of people and leaving many missing.
"All aspects of this story provided very strong material for people's collective memory of the area as a dangerous region," Fanada Sholihah, maritime historian and director of the historical archive platform Tarugiri, told the Jakarta Post.
Another major accident linked to Masalembu is the crash of Adam Air 574.
The flight lost contact and crashed in January 2007 while flying from Surabaya to Manado, in North Sulawesi, killing all 102 people on board. The National Transportation Safety Committee found the aircraft had actually crashed off Majene, in West Sulawesi, about 500km from Masalembu.
Experts say the myth is not entirely detached from the physical conditions of the waters.
Daryono, former director of the national meteorological and geophysical service BMKG's earthquake and tsunami centre, told the Jakarta Post the weather conditions could be very dangerous for shipping and that vessels crossing perpendicular to the current could easily be pushed off course, or knocked over.
